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Biographical details

Maria works with Professors Philip Bohle, Michael Quinlan, and Philip Taylor, on an NHMRC/ARC strategic award (2009-2012) examining individual and organisational influences on the work attitudes, health and safety, and workforce participation of older workers. This study aims to identify barriers to employment of older workers and develop strategies to improve the workforce participation and occupational health and safety outcomes of these workers. It employs a longitudinal cohort design and consists of two waves of data.

Maria also works with Professors Bohle and Quinlan on an ARC Discovery Grant (2012-2015) which examines the occupational health and safety effects of precarious work. This project will advance theoretical and empirical understanding of the nature of precarious employment and the processes underlying its health effects. It will also contribute to the development of interventions to provide healthier, safer and more sustainable workplaces for precarious workers. Maria’s work on this project is a direct extension of her work on her PhD thesis which looked at precarious work in the hotel industry. As well as comparing OHS outcomes for particular groups of workers, Maria’s PhD study also helped to test and refine Quinlan and Bohle’s Pressure/Disorganisation/Regulatory Failure (PDR) model. It enhanced understanding of the mechanisms by which these factors interact to influence outcomes. Work for the thesis entailed the psychometric evaluation and refinement of scales initially created by Bohle et al. (2004) to measure PDR. The thesis defined and tested a structural model explaining health and injury in precarious work. The structural equation modelling techniques employed had not been used previously in this area and provided a clearer portrayal of the complex relationships between the many variables affecting the OHS of precarious workers. Maria’s work on this ARC project will advance her previous work in this area.

Maria is also working with Dr Lynda Matthews and Professors Bohle and Quinlan on another ARC Discovery Grant (2012-2013) which investigates the impact of traumatic workplace death. The aim of the project is to systematically identify the health and financial consequences for families of workers who have died at work, and to understand institutional responses to families’ needs. The information obtained will aid in improving responses to families following a workplace death.

Maria has also been involved in a study with Professor Richard Johnstone and Professor Michael Quinlan examining changes to OHS standards and inspectoral activities in Australia. It is based on an ARC Discovery Grant on the implementation of process regulation in occupational health and safety.